Writer-director Zach Braff's debut feature, "Garden State" is a welcome break from the usual run of romantic comedies. It has an askew sense of humor that's grounded in honest observation. Braff's understanding of his characters, which goes beyond surface quirks, gives him the flexibility to switch, at will, from humor to pathos. For all its faults, "Garden State" is a work of integrity.

What the movie lacks -- a big lack, not a fatal lack -- is a compelling character at its center. Everyone in "Garden State" is fun, skewed, strange and singular, except for the protagonist, Andrew, who comes back to his hometown for his mother's funeral. Andrew is mainly a passive observer, quiet and without affect. We're told that Andrew has been on mood stabilizers for years, which accounts for his bland demeanor. But that's no excuse. That's just a good argument for not making movies about characters just coming out of sedation.

Lacking a strong protagonist, Braff could have found a charismatic actor for the role, someone funny or intriguing enough to make a cipher interesting (think Tobey Maguire, or Dustin Hoffman in "The Graduate"). But he didn't. Instead he cast himself. Unfortunately, Braff's neither-fish-nor-fowl appearance -- he's not a romantic lead or an obvious comedian or a compelling presence -- only accentuates the vagueness of the writing.

In the absence of a strong central character, Braff must rely on supporting players and clever situations to maintain audience interest. This is usually a losing strategy, but Braff accomplishes it with seeming ease. Taking place over several days, "Garden State" follows Andrew, a struggling actor with one notable TV-movie success on his resume, as he returns to New Jersey and reconnects with old friends.

He finds that his friends haven't really changed; they're just more miserable. Everyone is at loose ends, caught in a slothful dead zone between college free-spiritedness and adult responsibility. One friend has become rich through a gimmick invention, but he has nothing to fill his days. Another has become a gravedigger who supplements his income by robbing jewelry from corpses and scamming department stores. The latter character, Mark -- intensely played by Peter Sarsgaard -- is the film's best creation, a born leader with an innate charm, whose life is heading into desperation.

Romance comes in the form of Sam, a vivacious epileptic whom Andrew meets in a neurologist's waiting room. It's a very funny role for Natalie Portman, who portrays a young woman who talks nonstop, lies compulsively and blurts out everything she's thinking. Still recovering from his mother's funeral, Andrew is not in a romantic frame of mind, and so Andrew and Sam get to know each other as friends before there's any physical contact. This is welcome, in that it's true to life and different from most movies. However, just presenting a connection as sexless doesn't in itself imply a compensating connection of the spirit. "Garden State" insists that Sam and Andrew's relationship is special, but insisting doesn't make it so.

Still, it all goes down in a pleasant way. Considering that the movie is called "Garden State," a little more of New Jersey wouldn't have hurt, a little more sense of location, but most viewers won't sense that absence. Instead "Garden State" is an amusing little movie about people who could be from anywhere.